Tate-Loshn

Did you know that Yiddish is an official minority language of Sweden? (The others are Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, and various Sami languages.) According to Wikipedia, these languages were chosen in 1999 in order to "protect the cultural and historical heritage of their respective speech communities." This is very good for my son, because it means that the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company has recently begun producing Yiddish-language TV series for children, which are available for free online.

One of his favorite shows to watch is the series "Alter Karton" (Old Cardboard, released in 2012 under its Swedish name, "Allti Kartong"). It's about the adventures of two robots, Alter Karton and Roytinker, who are clearly modeled after C3PO and R2D2 from Star Wars. Like C3PO, Alter Karton is a tall, lanky robot who likes to think himself the leader, but is actually full of doubt, somewhat clumsy, and easily fooled. By contrast, his squat little friend Roytinker, like R2D2, is very clever, daring, and mischievous. While Alter Karton speaks with a human voice, Roytinker communicates only through radio beeps and flashing lights. In the images below, you can see (1) C3PO chasing after R2D2 and (2) Alter Karton chasing after Roytinker:

C3PO chasing after R2D2

Alter Karton chasing after Roytinker

The basic premise is that Alter Karton and Roytinker own a little store, but they're easily bored, so they go on adventures. In one episode, they fly to the moon to escape all the rain; in another, they build a rocket-powered bicycle to win a local race; in another, Roytinker swallows Alter Karton's cell-phone and needs to poop it out, so they go and buy a toilet from a toilet factory. When their landlord comes by and demands a full year's rent – which the two poor robots do not have – they plant a magic flower garden, and then sell the flowers to pay their rent. When Roytinker gets hungry but decides he'll only eat potatoes, they go out to a potato farm and pick their lunch from the ground. When they get invited to a Halloween party, but all the costume stores are closed for the day, they go around town making home-made costumes from random objects. When their plumbing gets shut off, they go out in search of water to use for watering their flowers. My son's favorite episode seems to be the one about building a mysterious machine, which comes in the mail with IKEA-like instructions: Alter Karton is afraid it will turn them into shrunken peanuts or breathe fire at them, but brave little Roytinker knows it will do something much more fun and exciting.

Since this is educational programming, each episode is centered around a particular theme (space, bicycles, poop, rain, costumes, agriculture, machines, and flowers), which not only shapes the robots' adventures but is also explored in various pedagogic sections that are meant to expand children's vocabulary and imagination.

For example, every episode includes a "Can You Guess What This Is?" section, which shows us an extremely close-up shot of some image, and then we have to guess what it is. In the episode about agriculture, we are shown what looks like an enormous black dot; as the screen pans out, we realize it's one of the seeds on a strawberry. In the episode about poop, the image turns out to be a fly-covered splat of bird poop -- "ew, gross!" This encourages kids to use their imaginations while thinking about every-day objects from alternative perspectives.

Every episode also includes a brief vocabulary section. In the episode about space, for example, we are shown a cardboard sun and moon hanging from the ceiling, in front of a starry backdrop. A young boy comes forward with a pair of scissors and points to the full-moon as we hear the words "fuler levone" (full moon). Then he cuts the cardboard moon in half, smiles, and the narrator announces: "halber levone!" (half moon!) Finally, he cuts the cardboard moon into a sliver, and the narrator tells us what this is called: "moyled" (crescent / new moon). In the episode about rain, the same young boy is sprayed with increasingly heavy streams of water from above: it starts with "shpray regn" (drizzling), makes its way through "shlaks regn" (downpour), and eventually ends with the kid giggling and giggling as meatballs come pouring down on top of him: this, we are told, is "klopsn regn!" (meatball rain!)

Finally, each episode includes a "Just Imagine!" section. In the episode about space, we are asked to imagine that the moon is actually a blintz that you can just peel off your window and eat with a fork: "this is good," the narrator tells us, "in case you get hungry at night!" In the episode about rain, we are asked to imagine that you could blow the rainclouds backwards: an enormous fan is then rolled onto the street and proceeds to literally blow the rainclouds backwards. In the episode about costumes, an innocent little bunny rabbit is step-by-step transformed into a monster: some ketchup is squeezed on its cheek, an eye-patch is added, the back-drop is changed to a scary scene and then we start to hear thunder claps. "But this is just an ordinary stuffed animal!" the narrator reminds us, as, one-by-one, all of the pieces of the costume are removed.

Of course, this is all designed for older kids, and my son is only 1. But he enjoys watching it – he often squeals with delight when he hears the opening theme song, and he's recently started screaming about a minute before each episode ends to alert me that I need to play the next one. But no less importantly, this screen time also gives him important language exposure. Since I'm the only person who regularly speaks Yiddish around him, it's really important for him not just to hear more Yiddish, but to hear other voices. And I'll be the first to admit that I actually really like children's shows, too -- and Alter Karton is pretty good!

You can watch the whole series here, in Yiddish, with either Yiddish or Swedish subtitles. It's available for streaming through December 2016.

Thank you so much! I am a single dad raising his four children in Yiddish,and I have been scouring for cartoons and other children's broadcasting for them to watch in Yiddish. Please let me about other programs they can watch.